Straw Bale Garden 2018 Pics

I am going to add these and run through them as quickly as possible. :) These  pictures show the progression of our plants for this year's garden. 

May 23rd was one year from the day my dad passed away in 2017. I so terribly wanted some good to come from that horrible date. It was important for me to focus on life and not death. I think this would be important to my dad, too. He wanted us all to know that the day he passed would be the best day of his life... the day when he got to meet the Lord he has been loving and talking about for such a long, long time. I didn't get to it until that night before bed, but we seeded plants into fifty little pods.

Three days later, on the 26th, we got a phone call telling us that dad's ashes were ready for pickup. He had donated his body to science the day he passed. We were told to expect this phone call at the end of May or perhaps early in June. Needless to say, receiving this call on the 26th of March was quite a shock! I do not have a picture, but that same day our very first plants sprouted! We find that comforting.

I moved the sprouts as quickly as I could (seen above and to the left) into trays. I was hopeful not to have to thin out so many plants this year. I wanted everything to have its very best chance to grow. :) It was a real joy watching them stretch upwards toward the grow light. <3

Grow, they did! In what seemed like no time at all, the sprouts became seedlings. Now we had true plant starts. We also added a second grow light to our home. We had gone from packets of seeds to nearly 200 plants! We felt so blessed by this wealth of little garden starts. <3 

The plants continued to grow and thrive throughout the month of April. May rolled around and I was in full swing, moving plants out of trays and into 3" and 4" cups. A week ago, we moved some of those outside to harden off. We are tremendously pleased with these little guys! :) 

In the week since, I began to plant some of our little guys, as well. I have two buckets that are presently growing varieties lettuce. I set out some tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, zucchini, two types of cucumber, some of the 18 varieties of tomatoes we are growing, cantaloupe, and I forget what all else. They are all very small yet, but the garden as truly begun! 

Because he knows and loves me so well, my husband gave me the gift of my favorite kind of potting soil as well as 8 beautiful new bales of straw to add to the fourteen we already have. I don't know what everyone else gets for Mother's Day, but I call that true love! <3 :) You can tell the new straw compared to the darker, already conditioned bales. Aren't they lovely?

Hubs also took the time this past weekend to cut down the pine tree which has grown to take up so much space in our yard. You can see where some of it was, by the absence of grass at the left of the bales. My yard now looks larger, and I have more space for gardening! What a win that is! I love this man so very much! <3 <3 <3 Our garden has gotten bigger every year. Yay! I cannot wait to see these overrun with plants!

Garden/Spring Update June 11, 2017

Things are really growing in the small backyard of this small but contented family! <3 :) 

This is a bucket of lettuce. There are many kinds in here, as you can see. We have been consistently eating them and they are still booming! haha

I looove having these on sandwiches, tacos, burritos, as a salad, and any other thing you would add a 'green' to. 

The flavors and scents range from sweet to herbal. My daddy would be *so* pleased to see his buckets so full of life! There is not one bucket he gave us that is not booming!

Giraffe's zucchini plants have really taken off! We planted almost everything in our garden this year from seeds. It is extremely gratifying to watch them grow and produce!

The first zucchini came in from the garden the other day. (Not pictured.) It was at *least* around eleven inches long and was also nice and fat!

We cannot wait to share our bounty with our favorite neighbors! It is a highlight of our summers to share the bounty of our garden with them each year. They love zucchini the best. We're ON it!! :D

Tomatoes are also on the way. There are many little flowers blooming and a few tiny fruits themselves. :) 

Our markers got misplaced, moved, or weren't placed at all so each plant is going to be a surprise to us when they ripen. 

Will this one be red? Brown? Yellow? Yellow-red? Large? Medium? Tiny? Huge? It is hard to tell! 

It is late to add to our crop but I am eager to get more plants started. I want to make sure that every single variety is well represented! I am most eager to sample the steakhouse, sunrise bumblebee and big rainbow!

Some of the plants are small and just starting out. These were seeds sewn directly into the straw of the bales.

We kept an eye open for what was growing well and what wasn't. On my dad's birthday, little Koala and Giraffe went through the garden, adding seeds wherever we had empty spaces. Some of those are just now showing up. 

They planted everything from more watermelon to cucamelon, pumpkin to pole beans... you name it, we have seeds for it planted in here somewhere! :D This is SO much fun! We will continue the process of seeding and planting until the garden is nice and full. :)

My spinach is growing well and tastes delicious! I believe that we have a variety of four types of spinach this year. These were planted by Giraffe on the same day in which I planted all of the lettuce and the red cabbage into other buckets.

You can see that we need to thin it out a bit. That is exceptionally hard for me to do, though! lol I tend to eat the leaves when they are still small 'baby' spinach. I'm sure I will try to grow some guts and thin these beautiful babies out. 

I love the lettuce and spinach mix we have going this year! I know that I am a broken record about it, really, I do. This just brings me such joy, generally. This year, it brings much-needed relief to my heartache. 

My herbs are still growing well in the cast-off straw from last year's bale garden. 

You can see that my basil (far left) is starting to flower. This has never happened to me before. I need to look into that. 

Purple basil is in the middle and looks lovely. Parsley is far right. I am most enthusiastic about using this herb. :)

Cantaloupe and cucumbers also coming along. This year they are primarily growing out the back of the garden. I have two rows of bales, where last year I had just the one. 

I would still like to tie these up to the trellis. Last year, the cantaloupe and cucumbers helped hold up tomatoes. I never had a problem with one strangling the other. They made great trellis mates. I may have to go again.

Here is a better picture of some of our little cucumbers that are growing. Again, these came from seeds we planted! Yay!

I also have to tell you something else... these belong to my littlest little! She has two bales that are hers. In them, she is growing cucumber, zucchini, cucamelon, watermelon, and beans. 

I let her choose what to plant and where she wanted them. It has been both sweet and joyous, watching my little baby tend to the garden in her own little way! 

It is never too early to teach children the value of life... all life... and to encourage their love of cultivating it! <3 <3 <3 

My peppers are struggling, I'll be honest. I have two Sweet California Wonder. These are what you might recognize as the multi-colored bell pepper. There will be red, yellow, and green when they finally grow tall and well. 

I also have two Emerald Green bell peppers growing. I couldn't tell you which set of two this is. You can see that they are quite tiny. I am going to be fertilizing them soon and keeping a closer eye on their progress.

Peppers are meant to be planted two plants at a time, as companion plants. This helps them to flower and produce better, and provides them better protection. When they are larger, I will be staking or caging them, as well.

This is one of my Red Acre Cabbage plants. :) I planted these seeds much earlier than my Green Acre Cabbage so they are larger. 

I absolutely love the purple coloring and veins stretching through the leaves. I truly cannot wait to have entire heads of red and white cabbage! This is one of those 'first time' veggies that has me beside myself! hehe

This set of buckets contains another mix. There is celery growing in the small blue bucket. I keep telling myself that I will move that poor thing to a bale somewhere! lol 

The celery plant has been hidden by the massive leaves of my Snow Cauliflower. You can see that it is the star of the show in that particular green bucket. The bucket split but I am unwilling to lose it, since it was my dad's. I red-necked that thing together with some duct tape and am going to keep growing in it! haha

The smaller, lighter green leaves are from my radishes. I am growing these every three weeks. They do very well every time, so far!

I still have another 40-ish pictures. I won't be able to share every plant in the garden this year. 

I am going to end this by abruptly switching tracks on you. Okay? lol

We have continued to use our new popsicle molds, much to the children's delight! Mine too... who am I kidding?

This week we did some that were strawberry, some strawberry-peach (in strawberry-banana jello), and a special more diabetic-friendly combination for me. 

Instead of jello (with its high sugar content), I added peaches and strawberries (which have their own sugar) to blueberry tea. I found this to be an especially good idea for me. I will continue to make tea pops for myself through the summer, with and without fruit. :)

Father's Day is coming up. I am a wreck of emotions this year, given that I've just lost my dad in March. However, mixed in there is the deep love I have for my husband and partner in life. He is a million kinds of wonderful. I look up to him in a great many ways. 

He is kind, strong, compassionate, gentle, loving, assertive when he needs to be, and a strong defender of his family. We are best friends and lovers, individuals and equals. I am very secure with this man. That says a lot for me, as I struggle with feeling safe anywhere in general. 

God has been kind, in sending me someone to walk through both the beautiful and the ugly of this life. I recognize the great fortune I have in being his and do not take it lightly. From the bottom of my heart, I love you forever, Hubs! 

Happy Father's Day!<3 <3 <3 

Straw Bale Garden 2017: So it Begins

Take one look at my very spring-y, messy backyard and you will know it is true: we are at it again! :)

Straw bale gardening is underway at our little home. Spring 2017 limped into view but is now fully underway. 

See that mess, folks? That's pure joy and contentment right there.

Happy little garden sticks poking up out of the dirt smile at me through the glass all day long. This little guy (and his companion) came from the local Dollar Tree. That's a buck well spent, I think.

These buckets and planters are extra-special to me. My husband brought them home from my parents' home after my dad passed away and right before my momma moved out-of-state for good. 

The little ones and I intend to plant lettuce, spinach, and possibly also cabbage plants into these planters. For now, they've been fertilized and watered.

Things are sprouting inside the house, as we speak. :) This year, I purchased a 4' long grow light so my seedlings could grow better, faster. Pictured in the forefront to the left are my little Cherry Belle radishes. I will be adding more seeds to bales when it is time to plant, of course. :) 

My cucumbers are really taking off. It is going to really upset me to thin them out. I probably should have by now but oh, how I hate to do that!

These guys prove that my long little grow lamp is doing its job. Any other year, these would be tall and wiry instead of having thick, strong leaves. I am so pleased about this!

Giraffe is most excited about the zucchini. She has high hopes for a massive, productive plant again this year. 

Her plant did beautifully last year until squash bugs attacked. We had no clue what was happening, having never experienced this particular pest previously. It was an awful experience!

B.R.O.C.C.O.L.I.... just sayin'

If the broccoli plants survive thinning and continue to grow, this will be the first time we have grown them from seed to harvesting. We are all pretty stoked about this possibility! Steamed, cheesed, or on a cold veggie pizza, all of us but the hubs love eating the small trees of this particular plant. :) 


This lone sprout holds large tomato hopes and dreams! :D Known as the 'Brandywine', it produces sandwich-sized pink, fleshy tomatoes that have a rich, deep, practically-perfect-in-every-way flavor. I would have to call this the "Mary Poppins" of tomatoes! 



Don't let these two unimpressive sprouts fool you. See the name on the stick? Steakhouse tomatoes, baby! Look it up! :D These wee sprouts purportedly grow into monster-fruit producers! Seriously, pop on over to the Burpee website and look at their photo of the magnificent Steakhouse tomato potential! Eeeekk! I can't wait!

Last year, we had *such* luck with our spaghetti squash that we simply *had* to have them again. In fact, at the beginning of April, my mom still had a small spaghetti squash left from our 2016 garden! These guys grow well, quickly, and mass-produce delicious buttery-tasting squashy innards we cannot wait to devour!

One of our 'newcomers' for the 2017 garden season is cauliflower. It is true, I also need to thin these guys out. It is just so hard to do!

We have never grown our own cauliflower but we *do* love eating it. Grow little guys, grow! :D

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OKAY... I have a million more plants and only a dozen or so more pictures. This blog post is already running long so I will try to list out what all else is in seed trays or on the docket for the season. :) I believe we have around 35 this time.

Tomato Varieties
Early Girl (My favorite 'tangy' tomato from last year... very acidic!)
Steakhouse (The hopefully monster-sized tomato!)
Big Rainbow (Large like a beefsteak, yellow/red/orange in color.)
Sunrise Bumblebee (Tiny like a cherry tomato but yellow/red striped.)
Mirabelle Blanche (Tiny yellow/orange, very sweet)
Red Cherry (large fruited cherry tomatoes)
Brandywine (large pinkish-red hue)
Beefsteak (the original big bad boy)
Abe Lincoln

Squash
Spaghetti Squash
Butternut Squash (growing in honor/memory of my dad)
Dark Green Zucchini Squash
"Big Max" Pumpkin (supposedly huge *and* edible)
Small Sugar Pumpkin

Melons
Congo Watermelon (Supposed to be huge!)
Hales Best Cantaloupe 

Cruciferous Veggies
Snow Crown Cauliflower
Waltham Broccoli
Cherry Belle Radish
Golden Acre Cabbage
Red Acre Cabbage

Carrots
Tendersweet 

Peppers
Sweet Emerald Giant (green bell pepper)
Sweet California Wonder (mixed colors)

Cucumbers
Tendergreen
Muncher
Straight Eight

Beans
Top Crop Bush Beans (long green beans for snapping)

Lettuce
Black Seeded Simpson (we grew this last year with great results/flavor)
Arianna (new to us... can't wait to try)
Summer Bibb (named such for its tiny bib-shaped leaves)
Red Romaine (thought it was high time for some color)

Spinach
Bloomsdale
Giant Noble
New Zealand

Strawberries

Potatoes
Russet
Red

This is more than we have ever attempted before. Almost all of it is organic. I believe that my dad would be proud. <3 

Catching Up

Spring is here!!! It arrived early this morning... with a temperature that was still in the 30's. lol Today warmed up but tonight goes even lower. Yes, so far spring is cold but it *is* here!

I have been mostly offline the last ten days. I intend to stay off as much as I can, really. This winter has been exceedingly hard on my little family. We need to take time to decompress as much as possible. I miss out on some parts of the social media world but, for the most part, I stay safe tucked in here with my husband and children.

What have we been up to? Glad you asked. ;) 

First of all, there is always schoolwork. Giraffe is doing a magnificent job getting through her year. She has her favorite and least favorite subjects, like any kid. Still, she blows me away with her ability to enjoy learning. It was one trait I had really hoped to pass on to her. 

My little Koala pushes to be allowed to start school a little harder every single day. I'm not sure how exactly I am supposed to keep her out of school early, with her being *so* eager to learn. There are a lot of days when 'baby school' looks like a new craft with Mommy or simply a million tiny scraps of paper on the floor around her because she has practiced cutting. The child *loves* scissors!

Straw Bale Delivery Day 2017

Secondly, spring brings straw to the Ladybug household!! :) This is our fourth year working up a bale garden. We began in 2014 with a meager four bales of straw, after seeing Karsten's book plugged on the local news at lunchtime. I did not initially realize that I essentially wasted the four bales that year on a mere eight plants. Only six even survived the entire season. What was I thinking?!?!?! Aaaaccck!!!

In 2015, we again stuck with four bales. This time, I had learned more. I added more seedlings to those bales. The result was a beautiful little garden in which I took great pride! Last year, 2016, I doubled the number of bales I had. This time, there were eight lovely bales of straw gracing my back yard. Oh, but I was beside myself with joy! The results were plentiful. We had plenty of food to spare and to share. It was a far cry from the single tomato planter I had growing every summer from 2008-2014! 

Hopefully the start of something good!

That brings us to spring 2017. I found a local farmer who would deliver straw right to my home and had him drop by 12 bales! =) Excuse the old swingset and the otherwise messy look. At the moment, the bales are set up in a U-shape in my back yard. It is like walking out into a smile made of straw. Well, that is how my heart feels about it! 

I intend to remove the swings from the set and fasten hardware cloth across the front of it, all the way to the top. My intention is to grow vining produce (either cucumber, cantaloupe, pumpkin, or watermelon) from the bales positioned in front of the swing. The wiring would allow them to vine up and over the swing, and down the back, as well. Giraffe and I are both ecstatic about this idea!

I see dishcloths, potholders, bath stuff!

Lastly, we've been back at our crocheting again. Thanks to the sale at Michael's, we've just set in a new batch of springtime color cotton skeins. I have at least two of each color pictured. Giraffe is going to try to continue to make and sell small items. :) She's been working on Easter-themed things. I've been working on bath loofas. Chances are she'll keep earning and I'll keep losing money but I don't really even care. It has been a wonderful bonding experience for us. 

The truth is, we slid into 2017 in an emotional heap. The year has continued to pile hurt into our hearts and lives. I'm frankly pretty fed up with that. It may be the heart that keeps you alive but it is the little things which keep you living. Even in the face of my dad's incredible illness (ALS) and the loss of our beautiful Pappaw, we are going to keep living one seed, one stitch, and one smile at a time.

Straw Bale Garden 2016 - Season Three

There is way too much to share about this year's garden! I should have started blogging earlier, but I was unable to. This is going to be a long one! (Edited to add that formatting is really messing up. It won't let me space, delete or rearrange. This is going to be a hot mess!)

 Let me *try* for the nutshell version. I was sick for the entire beginning of the year, from January through the end of March. Somewhere near the middle of March, I *did* purchase my supplies and lay in some seedlings. Yay! :)

Here you see the sprouts. There were tomatoes (2 kind), cucumber, cantaloupe, cabbage, lettuce, and watermelon. 

 When the seedlings seemed big enough, I moved them to trays made of coconut coir and placed them into the greenhouse that Hubs so lovingly bought me. I had to rely heavily on the kids to keep them watered while I was still recovering. They got a kick out of spraying them daily with a spray bottle.

    We also filled a five gallon aquarium with dirt and sprinkled a packet of carrot seeds into it. Our goal was to get to actually watch the carrots grow before our very eyes!

 Seedlings kept growing, and along with them my hopes of the perfect garden grew. At some point we had eighteen or nineteen different things growing. I kept a religious list... and then Koala lost it. *sigh* 

 It was around then that we did finally bring home the bales. They only need about ten days of conditioning, but with me being so ill and with the weather this year being so temperamental we did not get to condition them for at least a month. In the meantime, they soaked up water and sleet from the sky.

 
Seedlings got larger, so we moved them to still bigger pots, refilling the old pots with herbs. There was basil, mint, cilantro, oregano, spinach, and chives.

It was a real pleasure to watch them grow! 

 The veggies were really taking off. Even the carrots began to show up in the fish tank. We were really excited! I kept hoping the weather would improve so we could get our bales conditioned and move them outside. We did place them on the patio on good days to harden off. 

 When the herbs began to come up, we got even more excited! We were going to plant a garden with SO much variety! I still think they are so pretty. Koala was very involved this year. Giraffe planted half of the seeds, and she the other half. 

 Next we added pumpkin and green pepper to our collection. Green pepper takes a while to germinate, so we left it under foil until it began to sprout. The pumpkin was jack-o-lantern and the pepper were green bell. 

 To our dismay, a few days of under-watering (coupled with yet another cold snap with freezing temps) killed off only too many of our precious seedlings. We emptied a few of the containers into the planter outside and forgot about the old dirt... until these little guys showed up! To our delight, some seeds that had not yet germinated began to sprout! Here you see cabbage, black seeded simpson lettuce and even two small tomato plants I believe are Red Cherry.  

 In April I was finally able to properly condition the bales. This year I went with Scott's Turf Builder Lawn Food, because of the high nitrogen content. There were more cold snaps and issues. *sigh* So frustrating! FINALLY, I got my brandywine tomato (the only one left) and our other few starts planted.

Our only remaining cucumber was placed lovingly in the bale closest to the pine tree by Giraffe, along with a potato gone to seed. (It is tucked deep into the bale from the front.) Unfortunately, this little guy lived a short week or two and also kicked it. :(

 In May we FINALLY made it to the farmer's market. I was really hopeful that I could get a lot of starters to replace the plants I'd lost. The day was ICE COLD. I could see my breath. No shock, another freezing dip was coming! I got an early girl tomato, summer lettuce, 4 golden cross cabbage, an ever green lettuce, 4 pac man broccoli, two kinds of chives, and 4 slicing cucumber plants.

They would be right at home in our bales if it ever warmed up. On Mother's Day I got my chance, and laid in the new plants. 

Fast-forward several weeks bc this is so long. We got everything planted, and only lost one cabbage out of the bunch. Everything else is thriving! :) We ate the lettuce, in fact. Giraffe harvested it too close to the root, so I am watching to see if it grows back. We also noticed our early girl needed support, so Giraffe and I strung yarn between the poles while we waited on Hubs to put up the 2x4 and wire. 

Meanwhile, the lettuce and cabbage continued to grow in the planter. It has been harvested for salad and regrown twice already. The tomatoes were moved over to the bales. I was also given some by Farm Girl and her husband and bought a Husky, for a grand total of 14 tomato plants of five varieties. 

The carrots, too, have continued to grow in the aquarium. We thinned out quite a few to make room. So far, we can still only see the dirt from the outside. Go figure! (All of the roots we saw in the beginning - those tiny seeds I have pics of somewhere - are no longer there. I thinned them too much.)

This is the bale with the golden cross cabbage (we lost one of four), and the two kinds of lettuce that were harvested too low. You can see they are attempting a minor comeback. lol

I picked up more seeds, and Koala and I seeded them into an empty bale. They've just begun to come up. I noticed today that something is making away with them. *frowns* I've seen a squirrel running my bales, and many birds off and on. Insects are another pillager, so it is hard to tell. 

Excuse the dirty look, by the way. That is not a plant ailment. It is diatomacious earth sprinkled over them for pest control. Here you see my early girl (the big one, brandywine (hiding behind her), the two varieties of alium chives, the two I think are red cherries, and (far left) the husky. 

These are watermelon. One sugar baby and one... oh, foo... I really don't remember! This is terrible! I will have to see if I cannot find my info and get it all written down. 

Again, pardon the dust. No sooner had we strung yarn across than the cucumbers than they set out tendrils! Yay! We just love that! You can see they took root and really began to grow. :)

You can see that my beautiful red bell pepper went from lovely to wilty. We are still trying to save her.

And the carrots keep on growing... :) :) ) 

And the lettuce keeps on growing and being harvested for salad. It has a really good flavor, by the way. :)

I re-seeded the carrot bale (which had but five little sprouts). It is now full of wee greens. :)

Every bale gardener's affirmation... the growth of fungi in and on the bales. Sure enough, we're doing a bang-up job this year! This in spite of the illness, weather, and other setbacks. Yaaay! :) 

HUBS TOOK DOWN THE YARN AND PUT UP THE WIRE AND BOARD!!! YESSSS!!!!

Now my lovely, large bale garden actually LOOKS lovely and large! hehe Plants are growing in and on every single bale. More plants are growing in planters and the aquarium. I wake up early every morning and go out there to just breathe a minute. Every morning, there is new growth. This has been a rough year, indeed, in so many ways. With hard work and time, I have my place of peace. It has all been worth it. :)

***Oh! I also have zuccini! lol I'm so forgetful! haha I hope to get some butternut and spaghetti squash laid in, and more potato starts before the season is out.